Send a message

Contact Numbers

Social

Opening hours

Key Services

About

About us

It all started 20 years ago when we moved to Railway Cottage and inherited two old chicken huts. A work colleague was reducing their flock of chickens and we adopted some of them. The rest, as they say, is history.

We now have about 300 birds (chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl , golden pheasants and pea fowl). We specialise in some of the larger rare breeds such as Orpingtons and Brahmas, and also have a particular interest in the blue egg layers such as Araucana, Shetlands & Legbars. We have organised an exhibition of rare breed poultry at Selby Game Fair for the past two years, and will be exhibiting again this year April 22nd to 25th.

Howden Hounds Flyball Team

Howden Hounds flyball team was founded in May 2010 and trains at Railway Cottage (Sunday mornings in winter, Thursday evenings in summer). We welcome dogs of all breeds and abilities. As long as they like balls there's a good chance they can be trained to do flyball. We compete in BFA sanctioned tournaments throughout the year. If you'd like to join the Hounds email Asselby Chucks and your details will be passed on to our Captain.

Videos of the dogs racing in competition can be seen on Youtube - search for arthurwhippet1.

The History of Shetland Poultry

Shetlands are usually black with either gold or silver lacing around the neck. Their size is mid-way between a bantam and a medium size fowl. The most sought after hens have tufted heads (tappet in the Shetland dialect), and the cockerels have a large floppy single comb. The hens lay a blue/green medium sized egg, usually more evenly rounded at both ends than normal, and have a long laying season.

They are almost certainly bred from Araucanas, an ancient South American breed from Chile and Peru. This breed arrived in the Mediterranean in the 16th century, and legend has it that chickens carried by the Armada were shipwrecked near the Shetlands. These Ã¢Â€ÂœgalleonÃ¢Â€Â hens were bred with the local chickens to produce the Shetland. However, this is now thought to be unlikely as the Spanish favoured white eggs at that time.